Racing: Jockey back to harvest more gold

Stephen Gray with Mark Oulaghan and owner Peter Tennant. Photo / APN

Mark Oulaghan is normally pretty reserved about tipping his horses.

If you'd asked him how he thought Harvest The Gold would have fared before the recent Hawkes Bay Hurdles he would have steered you well away from the horse.

But this time he would have been genuine.

"I thought the Hastings track would have been too good for him and I hadn't met the rider until I legged him on the horse."

Oulaghan had been left without a jockey when his rider was injured in a mid-week fall.

He quickly learned the replacement, Irishman Stephen Gray, wasn't going to be a problem. "He drew out at around No 9 and after two fences he was on the rail - you just don't see our riders doing that."

Gray had been staying in Melbourne and was in New Zealand visiting former Irish trainer Francis Finnegan.

He pulled Harvest The Gold out on the home turn and electrified the horse to the extent the pair dashed up and grabbed a close finish win.

Oulaghan was so impressed he invited Gray back from Melbourne, where he had returned after Hastings, to ride Harvest The Gold in today's $47,500 Ricoh Wellington Hurdles.

This time the track will be very heavy and now Gray knows the horse well. That's a powerful combination and it will need to be to keep the improving Solid Steal out.

The Irish are climbing all over our jumps racing this season and Daniel Oakden is hoping he can turn his luck around and score one for his country.

Oakden missed out on the winning ride on Mr Align in the McGregor Grant Steeplechase at Ellerslie when he shed 5kg in 36 hours, but was stood down by trainer Graeme Rogerson when he felt Oakden might not be in the right condition to assist the horse if he lost the further 1kg required.

Oakden recommended yet another Irish jockey Derek Nolan, who did a great job to get the horse home.

That wasn't the worst for Oakden. Later that week at a central districts meeting, he was caught weighing out without his stirrup irons and stirrup leathers and suspended for one month. He returns to ride Mr Align in today's $47,500 Grant Plumbing Wellington Steeplechase.

If he is to win that race he will have to knock off Yourtheman, ridden by Irishman Richard Culley, who has been in great form.

His trainer Oulaghan is delighted with the horse's progress and feels Culley's previous ride on him will have taught horse and jockey a lot.

Climbing High, as usual, will give a great sight in front for a long way around the figure eight course, but it will come down to whether he can last the 5500m in heavy conditions.